Today we spent our day in Den Hagg, which is around 30 minutes from Delft. Our first stop on the agenda was the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, which is the national library of the Netherlands. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek moved to its current building next to Den Hagg Central Station in 1982 and is planning to move from their current location to a new building in just a few years. The Koninklijke Bibliotheek collects one copy of every publication, including books, magazines and newspapers that are published in the Netherlands. They have also been collecting Dutch digital publications since the 1990’s.
When we arrived at the library, we split up into two groups to tour the different areas of the library. One of my favorite things that our guide pointed out on our tour is that study and reading areas in the library have wheelchair accessible tables that raise and lower to better accommodate a wheelchair. In the Netherlands, one of the first things that I noticed was that many places, both private and public spaces, are not accessible for those with disabilities. I appreciated the fact that this library is a rare example of a space that was designed to be accommodating and accessible for all. The other thing that I thought was really interesting was that they allowed public access to their special collections, even if they did have strict security measures. Our tour guide told us that they even weighed the books when they were checked out and checked back in to make sure that the book still had all of its pages.
After the tour, we were treated to coffee, tea and cake before meeting our guest lecturer, Eric Boekesteijn, to hear about his role at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek and some of the other international library innovation projects he has worked on. Eric is considered an expert in library innovation and has been invited to work on different library innovation and design projects in places like Australia, England, Canada and Finland. Some of these projects ranged from small challenges that needed to be solved all the way to complete remodels or rebuilds of libraries. My favorite part of the presentation may have been some of the old and hilarious photos he included of Trent since they have known each other for a very long time. He left us with a thought that I really like that was something along the lines of saying sometimes the best libraries aren’t necessarily the most stunning libraries from the outside. While he didn’t elaborate, I took it to mean that how the inside of the library functions and invites people in is far more important than a building with stunning architecture and high-tech gadgets.
After we wrapped up our site visit at Koninklijke Bibliotheek, we stopped for lunch at Den Hagg Central Station before walking over to the Meermano Museum. The Meermano Museum is located in what used to be the residence of Baron Van Westreenen Van Tiellandt from 1783 - 1848. The museum is dedicated to print and handwritten books from past and present as well as display’s from the Baron’s own personal collection from global travels. There are books ranging from the 12th century all the way up to modern books. We waited in the pristine garden for our tour guide to take us into part of the house where we would learn more about the history of the museum and see some of the oldest handwritten and print books in the world.
In pretty much every room of the museum we had the chance to see books from the time period up close and personal in addition to the books that were on display in cases. After around 3 hours of touring the museum and seeing some of the vast collection of books, we were treated to drinks and some snacks to enjoy in the garden before making our way back to Delft for the day. I spent part of the evening updating my Honors portfolio and re-formatting some of the parts that I didn’t really like. Once everyone wrapped up their blogging, we found a restaurant that stayed open until 11, which in Delft seems to be very rare, to enjoy some drinks and each other’s company.